My Nocturne Series - Trees of Stone

[Mezzotint]

What is Nocturne Photography?

As defined in dictionary, nocturne has two meanings:
(i) a painting of a night scene;
(ii) a instrumental composition of a pensive, dreamy mood, especailly one for the piano.

The word photography comes from two ancient Greek words: photo, for "light," and graph, for "drawing." "Drawing with light" is a way of describing photography. When a photograph is made, light or some other form of radiant energy, such as X rays, is used to record a picture of an object or scene on a light-sensitive surface. Therefore Nocturne Photography is all about light-painting/drawing of a night scene.

On personal perspective, nocturne photography is more than just light-painting. As I started out my night photography in B&W, venturing into nocturnes just came natural with enthusiasm and strong determination. No doubts I'm inlfuenced and inspired by other photographers' work. Nocturne photographers like Michael Frye, Larrie Thomson, Andy Frazer, just to name a few.

Nocturne photography certainly challenges me to see things a whole lot different from B&W night photography, especially in the night where all colors are flushed out. But in nocturnes I use color lights to paint the night sceneries which in turn creates a total different feel or mood and sometimes, emotionally charged images. I really love night photography as I love the tranquility of the night and the atmosphere.

What you see here is one of the many nocturne fotos I made recently. More nocturnes are still in progress and I will update this album from time to time. So do visit my Multiply home for more noctunre fotos and many other fotos as well.

Hope you viewers enjoy viewing this foto just as much as I love making it.


Trees of Stone - These Trees of Stone are 'petrified' tree trunks, preserved, fossilised remains of real ancient trees.
© 2008 Martin Liew Photography

[Hosea]

Hi Martin,
I like the dramatic strong color portraying of this photo.
The green sky strains our creativity to its extreme, either you like it or rejects it.
Btw, is this film or digital? Did you use any filter for the sky?
I wish the sign board stand is not there … but we really have no choice for this man made-garden.
Thx for sharing.

Cheers

[Mezzotint]

Thanks for your kind words, Stanley.

I wish I can show you the actual slide film, either on a lightbox or on slide projector. The green sky isn't as saturated as it seems here. It's due to the scanning process and I suspect the lab person might had set to a certain presets or made some adjustments to it.

The motion blur on the upper left of the green sky is due to long exposure timing and it somehow symbolizes aurora. at least to my perception. I did not use any filter lens at all. The slide film I used is Kodak Ektachrome E100VS which suits my nocturne photography purpose. I tried not to use too many colors, but this foto is one exception. I was trying to play with different color combinations and to bring out that 3-dimensional feel of the subjects at the same time.

[Francis247]

Hi Martin,

Really a nice piece of work from you. I actually quite like the Green Colour Sky, just make it looks like Aurora Borealis effect.
Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more.

[Mezzotint]

Thank you very much, Francis. Thanks for your kind words.